Capital Impact Partners announced today that it provided nearly $27.5 million in financing to projects delivering social impact for underserved communities across the U.S. during the second quarter of 2015. These projects are expected to increase access to health care services, dignified aging options, healthy food, and education for low-income people in seven states, while also creating nearly 250 jobs.
"From Michigan to Oklahoma, Florida to Colorado, and all throughout California, we continue to demonstrate our leadership among Community Development Financial Institutions by supporting projects across the country that deliver social impact to those most in need," said Terry Simonette, President and CEO of Capital Impact Partners.
Highlights Capital Impact's second-quarter lending included support for three community health centers, including Capital Impact's first in Oklahoma; Colorado's second Green House home providing a dignified aging experience for low-income elders; and a micro-lending program to support healthy food retailers in California.
"I continue to be impressed by our lending team's ability to find and support truly innovative projects no matter where they are," said Scott Sporte, Chief Lending Officer for Capital Impact Partners. "Our support of intermediary lending to reach smaller borrowers, mental health facilities, and small, but impactful, co-op projects demonstrates our commitment to artisanal lending and social impact."
In the second quarter of 2015, Capital Impact Partners worked with community partners and borrowers to close transactions in the following areas.
Reducing Health Disparities Nationwide
Capital Impact's work with the North Oklahoma County Mental Health Center (NorthCare), represents the organization's first significant loan in the state of Oklahoma. NorthCare is an organization that offers innovative, evidence-based care models to improve the lives of the most vulnerable in the community—abused or traumatized children, families in crisis, and individuals battling mental illness and addiction. This loan will help NorthCare expand its services by making possible a new, 60,000-sq.-ft. adult wellness services building, which is part of a multi-phased campus that will also include both a children's services and crisis centers. It will also add capacity to a local Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) and multiple psychiatrist's offices offering coordinated services, including a pharmacy. As a result, this project will create 70 permanent jobs and 80 construction jobs.
NorthCare serves as a community safety net for more than 14,000 Oklahomans each year, and this new facility allows the providers to bring care to at least 2,000 additional patients annually. Estimates show that more than 600 people in Oklahoma go without needed health services each day, and this new facility will help fill that gap. Capital Impact has deployed $5 million of New Market Tax Credits (NMTC) in partnership with JPMorgan Chase and Oklahoma-based New Markets Redevelopment LLC to help finance the $17 million project.
Enhancing its impact in the greater Sacramento and central California regions, Capital Impact worked with a long-term FQHC customer, El Dorado Community Health Center, to expand one of its three sites in Cameron Park. The facility will provide new dental services and expand primary care to 3,000 additional patients annually while also creating 25 permanent jobs and eight construction jobs. El Dorado is the only FQHC in the county, with an annual service rate of 8,300 low-income workers and seniors who do not have access to traditional private practice services due to lack of insurance. Capital Impact provided an $835,000 loan to support the $1.3 million project through its CPCA Ventures Program, which has offered flexible and competitive terms to FQHCs in California since 1999.
In Southern California, Capital Impact provided South Central Family Health Center with a $2.4 million financing package for the ground-up construction of their fourth site in the low-income Latino community of South Los Angeles. An FQHC, South Central provides 20,000 patients annually with affordable and comprehensive health care and health education services in a multi-cultural environment. The new, 8,000-sq.-ft. facility will have 15 exam rooms, 2 labs, office space, and diabetic care and prenatal care facilities. This expansion will allow South Central to serve an additional 8,000 patients annually while creating 13 temporary jobs and 15 new full-time jobs upon completion. Financing partners included The California Endowment and the California Primary Care Association.
Dignified Aging Opportunities
Capital Impact expanded its efforts to provide Colorado with more dignified aging facilities by financing the Washington County Green House in Akron, Colorado. A radically new national model for skilled nursing care, Green House homes are designed from the ground up to look and feel like real homes for 10–12 residents each, returning control, dignity, and a sense of well-being to elders and their families while providing high-quality, personalized care.
Replacing an outdated traditional skilled nursing facility in the rural northeast region of the state, the $10 million ground-up construction project will include four individual homes for 10 residents each. Approximately 60 percent of the beds will be reserved for low-income residents covered by Medicaid. The construction of Green House homes will require 20 temporary employees, as well as 8 full-time permanent employees once the facility is open.
The financing combined state and county grants; loans from Capital Impact, the Colorado Health Foundation, and Colorado Housing Investment Fund; program-related investment from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; and New Market Tax Credits allocations in partnership with JPMorgan Chase. The project would not have been economically viable without the important government NMTC program subsidy.
Increasing Healthy Food Access
To support smaller projects that combat food deserts, Capital Impact disbursed $2.1 million through its California FreshWorks Fund Food Enterprise Microlending Intermediary program. Through this program, financing is provided to intermediary micro-lenders who are connected to their communities and are capable of providing small bursts of capital to local healthy food entrepreneurs as a means of increasing the diversity of healthy food distribution and retail outlets.
Examples of projects supported by this program include community markets; meat and/or fish stores; corner or discount stores; take-out restaurants; street vendors; mobile markets; farmers bringing goods to market; value-added processors; produce distributors, food vending machines; CSA networks; and other innovative forms of distribution or retail that focus on healthy food sales. In particular, the program looks to support increased access to healthy foods for working class families with small children ages 0–5.
Program partners include The California Endowment, Kaiser Family Foundation, and First 5 LA.
Supporting Inclusive Housing and Vibrant Communities in Detroit
Capital Impact's efforts to revitalize Detroit continued with the financing of the Shoppes at Woodward Place. The effort will support longtime partner Midtown Detroit Inc.'s purchase of eight storefronts at the intersection of Woodward Avenue and Grand Boulevard. The mixed-use project will rehabilitate the 56,000-sq.-ft. property by creating 11 commercial units and 25–30 rental housing units right on the new M-1 light rail line that will link midtown and downtown Detroit. Capital Impact led this $3.1 million transaction in partnership with Midtown Detroit Inc., IFF, Invest Detroit, and Detroit Development Fund.
Improving Educational Achievement
Continuing its ongoing work to support high-performing charter schools, Capital Impact provided financing to the Palmetto Charter School, in Palmetto, Florida, which serves a racially and economically diverse kindergarten-through-eighth-grade student body. The school has been awarded an "A" grade by the Florida Department of Education for several years running, and as a result of its performance, was granted a 10-year charter rather than the typical term of five years.
The $3.24 million financing package enabled the school to purchase a building it has been leasing for years from a nearby church, giving them the benefit of asset ownership as well as annual cost savings that can be dedicated to educational programming. As a single stand-alone school not managed by a multi-school operator, Palmetto had a hard time attracting financing from traditional sources before its operators turned to Capital Impact.
Project Openings
In addition to jumpstarting multiple projects across the country, Capital Impact also celebrated two openings from previously closed loans. This included the ribbon-cutting at the MLS Community Life Center in Washington, D.C. Run by Unity Health Care, Inc., the center will increase access to services for a full 10,000 patients annually. The development was made possible through a $12.5 million New Markets Tax Credit financing package structured by Capital Impact.
In addition, Equitas Academy unveiled its new middle school, which will serve 350 6th-8th-grade students. This charter school reaches a very low-income Latino population near downtown Los Angeles and nearly all of its students qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program. Capital Impact contributed a $3.7 million loan in support of the larger $8.2 million NMTC financing package. This opening represents the continuation of a multi-year relationship between Capital Impact Partners, Equitas Academy, and Pacific Charter School Development, a trio who also partnered to finance Equitas Academy's original elementary school.
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